President Joe Biden on Sunday issued a full and unconditional pardon for his son Hunter, a controversial decision that reverses his long-standing pledge not to use his presidential powers to protect his only surviving son, who was found guilty of gun-related charges in Delaware and pleaded guilty to tax evasion in California.
Using his executive authority in the waning days of his presidency, Biden lifted the legal cloud that has hung over his son for several years.
While the president had pledged several times not to pardon or commute Hunter Biden’s sentences for federal crimes, many close to him had expected the pardon would come, given the president’s loyalty to his family.
Biden faces few political ramifications for the move, since he is leaving office and voters have already rendered their verdict on his administration by electing Republican Donald Trump to a second term.
While controversy over presidential pardons has a long history — from George Washington absolving instigators of the Whiskey Rebellion in 1795 to Gerald Ford pardoning Richard M. Nixon after the Watergate scandal forced his resignation — few have used the constitutionally vested power to pardon family members.
At the end of his first term, President Donald Trump granted several pardons to allies, campaign aides and top GOP donors, many of whom went on to support his reelection bid.
Among them was Charles Kushner, the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared — who handled a Middle East portfolio in the first Trump administration.
Charles Kushner, a real estate developer like Trump, pleaded guilty in 2004 to 18 counts of falsifying tax returns, retaliating against a witness and making false statements about campaign contributions to the Federal Election Commission. Trump has nominated him as the ambassador to France.
On his last day in office, Jan. 20, 2001, President Bill Clinton granted a slew of pardons, which included his half-brother, Roger Clinton, who in 1985, pleaded guilty to selling cocaine to an undercover police officer in Arkansas and spent a year in prison. The pardon helped clear his criminal record.
In a lengthy statement on Sunday night, released just as he was preparing to depart for Africa that evening, the president said that his son had been “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted.”
Biden said that he did not interfere with the criminal cases but insisted that they were brought about because of political pressure on federal prosecutors.
“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong,” Joe Biden said. “There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”
Hunter Biden’s attorneys this weekend also mounted a vigorous public defense, releasing a 52-page paper on Saturday titled “The political prosecutions of Hunter Biden.”
In the document released Saturday, Hunter Biden’s lawyers criticize the foundation of the investigations into their client, arguing that he was prosecuted for crimes that an ordinary citizen would not have been.
They said Hunter Biden is likely to face further unfair threats when President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
The document was aimed directly at President Joe Biden, who has repeatedly said that he would not pardon or commute the sentences of his son.
Hunter was with his father for several days in Nantucket, where the Biden family for decades has gathered for Thanksgiving.
Biden said he came to the decision over the Thanksgiving holiday.
“I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice,” said Joe Biden. “… I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”
“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong,” Biden said.
Reactions from both sides of the aisle poured in in the wake of the announcement, with Republicans expressing furor over the president’s pardon of his son.
“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!” the president-elect said, referring to rioters who have been accused of storming the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack.
President-elect Trump, in a post on his Truth Social platform, called Biden’s pardon of his son “an abuse and miscarriage of justice” Sunday.
Rep. James Comer said in a statement posted to social media on Sunday that the president “has lied from start to finish about his family’s corrupt influence peddling activities.”
“Not only has he falsely claimed that he never met with his son’s foreign business associates and that his son did nothing wrong, but he also lied when he said he would not pardon Hunter Biden,” Comer continued.
During the House GOP impeachment inquiry into the elder Biden, Comer played a central role as the chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. However, the inquiry struggled to come up with solid evidence that the president’s family committed corrupt conduct and that Biden was engaged in the foreign business dealings of his son.
The House Oversight Committee called the pardon part of a pattern in its own post.
“From the lawfare against President Trump to now the pardoning of Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s unprecedented abuse of power has been a stain on the honor of the U.S. presidency,” the panel’s social media account posted.
Trump has been convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records by a jury in New York state but the federal government and authorities in Georgia all failed to prosecute the numerous crimes documented in three other indictments containing dozens of charges.
No effort was made by Attorney General Merrick Garland to prosecute Trump for the ten or more counts of obstruction of justice outlined by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
While Trump had broken a number of laws in his illegal effort to remain in power after voters rejected his 2020 re-election campaign, and the conspirators who aided him remain subject to prosecution, he is escaping accountability by returning to the White House.
“While as a father I certainly understand President @JoeBiden’s natural desire to help his son by pardoning him, I am disappointed that he put his family ahead of the country,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) said on social media. “This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation.”
“I respect President Biden, but I think he got this one wrong. This wasn’t a politically-motivated prosecution. Hunter committed felonies, and was convicted by a jury of his peers,” said Rep. Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.).
Republicans are nearly uniform in their denial of Trump’s crimes and his defeat in the 2020 election, promising retribution and persecution of their political opposition as they return to power, with majorities in the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Supreme Court along with Trump in the Oval Office.
According to the text of the pardon, it applies to all offenses that Hunter Biden “has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.”
Hunter Biden on Sunday night also released a statement noting his recovery from addiction and his sobriety.
“I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction — mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport,” Hunter Biden said.
“In the throes of addiction, I squandered many opportunities and advantages,” said Hunter Biden. “In recovery, we can be given the opportunity to make amends where possible and rebuild our lives if we never take for granted the mercy that we have been afforded. I will never take the clemency I have been given today for granted and will devote the life I have rebuilt to helping those who are still sick and suffering.”